The Importance of Progressives

The industrialization in the United States raised many problems. There were unfair business practices, brutal and harsh working environments, horrible child labor laws, and much more. In around 1890 was when the Progressive Era started to begin. A group of various people: teachers, journalist, politicians, etc., all started to form a group called the “Progressives” because they felt more people needed to be involved in politics. The progressive movement then arose to try to change these negative effects from the industrialization.

The main goal for the Progressives was to try and solve our Country’s problems with the help from our government. Progressives believed the people should be choosing who is the state senator and not the state legislature deciding, this lead to the 17th amendment. They worked for women to get the right to vote. They soon accomplished this with the 19th amendment.

They also worked hard to change work laws. Worker compensation laws were passed, laws requiring education were passed. They fought for minimum wage. And, safety in the workplace laws were passed. Another thing Progressives supported was prohibition. Which led to the 18th amendment. Progressives did very many different things to help our nation become better.

As for the government, they should be able to have work laws. Without hour regulations, bosses would get greedy and just want money, making an employee work every hour. They would try to pay you at the lowest dollar to increase their income as well, so setting a minimum wage is smart. Prohibiting child labor is also an important thing. Without all these regulations and laws, I think companies would just have money on their mind and use workers so having these laws in line is a need.

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17 thoughts on “The Importance of Progressives”

These people fought for a lot of great things that are very important for us today. Giving us a decent pay and not working 16 hours a day to make a living is very important. Along with this giving us the choice to vote for our senate so that they can get things done to make work and the country a better place for us.

Even though the country has been made better as a whole, because of being able to vote as a democracy. The minimum wage is still unfair in way, because all jobs shouldnt earn the same bare minimum wage. There are still jobs that should be paid more but still held at the minimum wage threshold. Which isnt fair to the employee in the modern day era. But the wages and work conditions are still way better from the Progressive movement.

I agree that the progressives worked hard and improved the state of living conditions during this time. I think that the labor laws were some of the biggest impact the progressives made. Fighting for shift regulations child labor laws was important for the future of our country as it continued to grow. Setting hour regulations made it so that companies could not over work employees and underpay them, and other laws made it so child were not spending their days working because they were cheap laborers.

I liked that you showed how the progressive movement evolved the right to vote. The seventeenth amendment gave us the right to directly elect senators, and the nineteenth amendment gave women the right to vote.

I agree, I think The progressives fought for a lot of our rights that we have today. They did try to solve our country’s problems. Working to get women’s right to vote, work laws such as minimum wage, safe work place and much more. They helped shape America into what it is today.

I agree that industrialization in the United States raised many of problems. If it wasn’t for the progressives, the same problems would still exist today. I also feel that the government during the progressive movement could’ve done more with regulations.

The Progressives did a lot of things to help our country for the better. If they didn’t set a lot of these laws who knows what our country would like. The Government sure wasn’t doing anything to make workplaces safer, stop child labor, and have 8 hour workdays.

Progressives tried to solve the problems of this time by trying to change different aspects of their lives, with awful working conditions being the most prominent issues. I like how you mentioned prohibition; a lot of Americans were leading pleasure-centered lives and would drink excessively, which most likely lead to issues in their households. I can see why they thought prohibition would help with improving American lives.

I like the picture that you chose! 8 hours for everything. If only I could actually get 8 hours of sleep! I’m glad they passed laws requiring school and regulating pay! This gave children the chance to be children and attend school whereas the parents were making more money to support the family.

I like how you mentioned all of the major rules that were set in stone because of the Progressive Movement. The 17th, 18th, and 19th amendment, the ending of child labor and the minimum wage laws are all things that were always just there for me. I knew about them and never really thought about the how and why they came about. Many of these amendments and laws are things that people now take for granted, so it is very interesting to see all the work and thought that went into getting them enacted. It makes me appreciate them even more.

Through the Progressive Era, there were many economical, social, and political achievements. We finally had concern being raised about our natural resources, children’s health, and discrimination. Laws were passed to keep children in school longer, women gained the right to vote, and labor laws were protecting employees. This was truly a turning point in our country.

I feel that most people can see a lot of connections between the problems that faced us during this time and those we face today. No, we don’t have children working in factories or refuse to allow women to vote, but we do face serious divisions between wealthy and poor as well as many cases of industries abusing the common masses. In that regard it’s important to look at how the Progressives of the past solved these issues with forcing government action and regulation. In the end the Progressives used the democratic process to let their voices be heard and instate basic and common work laws as well as giving us even more voices through women.

I agree with your statement that you have that without regulations bosses would be greedy and have all the money in the world working anybody from kids to senior citizens. It was cruel for people to work kids in factories instead of having everyone working at the same rate they wanted the cheap easy labor. For the children, it was reaching into the dangerous and small places nobody else could reach into. Thank goodness we don’t have those working conditions anymore.

Your blog this week was very good, I love all the detail you put into it. This time of era was very difficult for the hard working men and women. Having kids in school longer will help with their future and jobs. The conditions the kids had to work in were horrible, I’m glad the conditions were improved by the end of this era. I believe that the progressive movement was very important to our society. Very nice job this week.

Through the progressive era their was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s. The progressives eliminated a lot of problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration and corruption in government. Because of the Progressive movement a lot of things were changed for the better.

I also agree with you that the Progressive Movement was crucial to America as it promoted education. The more education, the better society will be in the long run. The laws that were passed to promote child education might have been the best things to happen to society. It is also important that child labor was ended because that was a terrible thing as well.